


the sentinel of briggs

by neckwear



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Briggs AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 10:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11484369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neckwear/pseuds/neckwear
Summary: Riza had known Briggs was not going to be an easy post, and even dreaded going there, having been assigned right after the Ishvalan War, but she hadn’t expected it to be so unfathomable. If she had thought Ishval was the most unbearable place on Earth, Briggs immediately proved her wrong.





	the sentinel of briggs

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for FMA AU Week, where everything is the same but Riza is Olivier's right hand woman instead of Roy's. I hope you all enjoy! I hope to write some more stuff for it too!

Riza had known Briggs was not going to be an easy post, and even dreaded going there, having been assigned right after the Ishvalan War, but she hadn’t expected it to be so unfathomable. If she had thought Ishval was the most unbearable place on Earth, Briggs immediately proved her wrong. 

She realizes soon that she’s one of the only women soldiers there, despite the leader being a legendary woman soldier herself, not much older than Riza, and one of the only Ishval veterans. Riza had heard stories about her from various soldiers in Ishval, that she was an immovable force stronger than the mountain and wall itself, that she had no mercy for anyone, that everyone was trained like dogs to be efficient and ruthless soldiers that worked as one cohesive unit. When Riza got her post assigned, Rebecca whistled and shook her head. “I hope you get out of there alive,” she said, and patted her on the shoulder. 

Riza has always been able to adapt to certain situations, and she had been hardened by the war, so the rigorous training she went through didn’t scare her half as much as it frightened the younger soldiers who had never been through anything truly terrifying and tough. Even though Riza goes to bed sore most nights, and is pushed past what she thought were her limits, she finds that she starts to like it in Briggs. 

There’s a sort of camaraderie in the fort. Living so far up in the North and in the mountains brings everyone closer together. Riza realizes that when everyone isn’t in combat or working on engineering, they all have a close bond with each other due to their shared experience of hard work and grit. She even becomes close to two of Brigadier General Armstrong’s right hand men, who seem intimidating at first but are understanding and kind in their own ways. She’s never worked harder in her entire life while at Briggs, and she gains valuable friendships as well as a better physique due to carrying around rifles and pushing cannons while trying to keep spies away and Drachma at bay. 

After training, Riza’s assigned to work as a ssniper, guarding one half of the fort with another sniper as the other half is guarded by two more. The Brigadier General had realized her potential and decided she was perfect for the post, so Riza spends most of her days trying to get over the cold and harsh wind that comes from Drachma across the border. She gets used to her face becoming red from the biting wind and thinking about anything but how much she was freezing. She spends the time talking to her buddy who’s facing the other way, towards Amestris, and they grow to become good acquaintances. 

Olivier doesn’t really notice her until Drachma tries to invade in the winter, after a huge blizzard. 

Riza hears a gunshot pass by her head, and when she turns, the soldier she had gotten friendly with is falling from the fort, blood flowing from his head as he crashes down to the ground. Before she can react, another gun goes off, and she ducks before the bullet meant for her can strike her. She has to act fast, so she lays on her belly and tries to ignore the fact that there is blood on her pants now as she takes out four Drachman spies, the rest of them coming in a storm after them. She has to alert General Armstrong, if she doesn’t already know; Riza scampers down from the watchtower to rush into Fort Briggs, probably looking like a madman with the way she runs into the building. 

Everyone is staring at her, so she takes her chance and yells as loudly as possible, “There are Drachman spies coming for us! Their military is possibly behind them!”

This sends everyone into an organized frenzy, many of them rushing to get their weapons and some of them running to the top of the fort to adjust the cannons. It takes a moment for Olivier to reach her, with the Lieutenant Buccaneer following close behind. “How long have they been there?”

“Just a few minutes. They shot the man next to me and I was close to being shot myself. I had to kill off four of them on my own before the soldiers in the tower next to us realized what was happening.” Riza realizes that she’s out of breath, so she has to calm herself down so she doesn’t seem like a total lunatic.

“I have no clue why they would invade now, especially because of how we’re trained to fight in the winter,” Buccaneer says.

“They were trying to do a surprise attack. The blizzard that came through made us lower our defenses, because we thought they’d be just as defenseless as we were,” Riza reasons. “It was bad out there. They probably started to make their way here before the storm, but saw the storm as a chance to get us when we let our guards down.”

After a short beat of silence, Olivier turns to the troops still inside the fort and yells out orders. “Don’t give them another chance to attack! Give it all you’ve got until we’ve gotten rid of every last one of them!”

Everyone salutes her and makes their way to their stations, and Olivier turns to Riza again, who immediately stands at attention after having relaxed for a second. “Come with me. I’ll need your eyes to spot any other spies who try to infiltrate Briggs.”

Riza is surprised for a moment, but eventually salutes her. “Sir.”

They end up being able to fight off Drachma, who retreat when they realize yet again that they’re no match for the Briggs soldiers. Riza had proven herself by shooting soldiers from high above with complete precision, and even in the throes of battle she kept a cool head and performed her job spectacularly. She even ordered some of the newer privates to man a cannon or grab a gun, and they respected her, even if she was only a Second Lieutenant. Her reputation as the Hawk’s Eye led most of the soldiers to listen to and respect her, because she had been in the War and made it out alive. 

It starts slow, but Riza begins to notice Olivier taking interest in her after the failed invasion. She had commended Riza for staying alive long enough to alert the rest of her troops, which ultimately led to their success. Riza was humble and insisted that they would have found out, but her Captain, Miles, insists that had she not thought to tell everyone and instead tried to fend off the soldiers and spies herself, she would have died along with the other snipers. Riza writes it off as just instincts, but she learns to take a compliment from Olivier Armstrong, because she doesn’t hand them out freely. 

A few soldiers who want to perfect their shooting technique ask Riza to help train them, and all approach her with some sort of reverence, like they shouldn’t be talking to her at all. Of course, Riza agrees, and they take time out of their busy schedules to go down to the shooting range so she can teach them. Soon, whenever she goes to the range, the soldiers of all different ranks and skill sets around them end up gathering in a circle around her as she explains the mechanics of different guns and ways to make their aim near perfect. All of the soldiers who learn from her find their marksmanship to steadily improve under her instruction. Beyond that, they all grow to be good friends over the fact that none of them are good at shooting, at least not as good as Riza -- and she reminds them with a smile that she had to practice to get where she is today. Olivier takes notice, especially because the soldiers who get Riza’s help with their aim are soldiers who had decent to awful aim previously. 

When Riza is getting ready for the day one morning, she gets a knock at the door and opens it to find Miles standing on the other side. “The Brigadier General wants to see you.”

 

They make short conversation on the way to the office, and although Riza knows she hasn’t done anything wrong, there is still a small feeling of dread underneath her skin. Olivier is sitting at her desk, her hands folded and she doesn’t gesture for Riza to sit. So, Riza salutes her in front of her desk. 

“At ease, Second Lieutenant,” Olivier orders, and Riza slowly lowers her arm but still looks uneasy. “I’ve called you here because I want to propose something to you.”

 

“Yes, sir?”

The Brigadier General stands up from her seat, her hands pressed on the top of the desk. “I’ve seen how the soldiers that you have been training at the shooting range have improved their skills substantially. I want you to teach the new recruits who need it how to handle a gun. They should on arrival, but many don’t expect that they’ll end up here. I figure this job is best suited for the Hawk’s Eye.” 

Riza is taken aback by her proposal. She had just been teaching them on the side because she figured that having a battalion with even more skilled snipers would make the entire group stronger. She hadn’t thought that it would be so important that it would catch Olivier’s attention. When she doesn’t respond for a moment, Olivier speaks. “Do you understand me?”

Riza blinks once, then gives her a nod. “I understand and I’m honored, Sir.” 

Olivier raises a brow, but ultimately sobers and her face becomes stern again. “I hope you realize the importance of this. If my men are incompetent at shooting, then Briggs will be left defenseless. You are training them to do one of the most important skills someone here could have. I am placing my full faith and trust in you, Hawkeye.”

She had never called her by her last name before, and now that she thinks about it Olivier only does so frequently to those she trusts with her life, like Buccaneer and Miles. Riza nods again. “I fully understand this undertaking and the importance of it all, Sir. The academy doesn’t teach soldiers how to fight in the snow, much less shoot during a snowstorm. I hope I can teach them all how to do this properly.”

Riza is concerned that she’s said too much, but Olivier doesn’t acknowledge it. “Then the task is yours and yours alone, Second Lieutenant. Don’t let me down.”

Riza salutes once again, and goes through the day feeling prouder of herself than she thinks she ever has before.

Over the years, Riza slowly works her way up the ranks in Briggs. As she teaches more and more incoming soldiers and those who need improvement to shoot, Olivier begins to see how her decision had been an intelligent one. Her soldiers are a more formidable force than before, and many of them develop near-perfect aim due to their training with Riza, and because of it suppress Drachman forces and potential spies. Riza soon becomes a trusted soldier until her command -- she reports to her the progress each new batch of fresh-faced privates are making, so Olivier can know which ones are most likely to be used as snipers and which ones she shouldn’t put too much stock in. Beyond that, Olivier begins asking her for advice. She often uses Riza as a tiebreaker between Buccaneer and Miles, and values her opinion as much as the two men’s. Being one of the only women in Briggs has probably brought them closer as well, and Olivier respects her because they have both dealt with some kind of doubt of their abilities from male commanding officers, and because Riza herself is headstrong and opinionated. Due to the mostly male presence, Riza has adapted and has had to become more fierce than she would have been in any other circumstance. 

Riza Hawkeye grows to demand respect from the burly and hefty men by not taking anyone’s shit. She comes to be regarded as the Sentinel of Briggs, watching over the mountains and the Ice Queen.

*****

The first time Riza goes to the North versus East training exercises in the East, she runs into Roy Mustang for the first time since the war. 

It was no secret that Olivier hated his guts. If she ever overheard his name by one of her men, Riza could easily see the disdain in her face, so she keeps it to herself that she’s known the man in a more personal way for years. She hadn’t spoken to him since Ishval, and he hardly ever crossed her thoughts because she had more important things to worry about than him. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that he would be at the exercise, because he hadn’t appeared at the other ones that had been held up North. 

“Long time no see, huh?”

Riza turns where she had been standing under her tent, towards the voice that was to the right of her. Olivier had left to speak to another general, as she had just made Major General. He was there, with an entertained smile on his face, but it was still friendly and familiar. She doesn’t rush to hug him or greet him with a surprised, high-pitched voice. Instead, she keeps a straight face but steadies her eyes on him. “Hello, Colonel. Fancy seeing you here.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asks, probably glad that she is taking a sarcastic turn in the conversation. 

“Well, considering you never showed up at the training exercises in the North, I’m almost surprised to see you here,’ Riza responds, not looking at him anymore but instead at the mass of soldiers arranged on the field. 

“I’ve always hated snow,” Roy says, waving a non-committal hand in the air. “It was nothing against Briggs. Just personal preference, and I was never required to go.”

“That’s right. I had almost forgotten that you’re useless around any sort of water. I guess that includes snow, hm?” Riza teases, and looks over at him again just to see the way he flounders at her comment. This time it’s him who looks away, and Riza notices how he looks like a petulant child.

“That’s a low jab.”

“You made it too easy. How could I not?”

She expects Roy to still be frowning, but she sees that he doesn’t let it get to him too much -- it’s good to see that he still has a sense of humor. “It must be a shock for you to be in the East. Are you still thawing out?”

It’s Riza’s turn to be slightly offended at the other’s comment. “I’m afraid so. It’s ungodly hot here.”

“Maybe I could be of some assistance,” Roy suggests, and at this Riza has to roll her eyes.

“It’s better to let things naturally thaw than to heat them up. You never were good at cooking, were you?” she asks, and while it’s not her best comeback it makes him chuckle.

“It’s good to see that you haven’t lost any of your wittiness while stuck up North.”

“You learn to use humor to get through the blizzards and invasions.”

Before he can reply, his commanding officer calls on him from afar, and Roy exhales and glances back at her before leaving. “I hope I’ll see you again soon,” Roy tells her, and she nods, saluting him before he goes -- he is, after all, still a superior officer.

“I have a feeling we will, Sir.”

Olivier had noticed, while stuck in a boring conversation with another General, how Riza and Roy had seemed friendly already. She has an thought, but has to see if it would even work. “Is there something you need to tell me, Lieutenant?”

Riza doesn’t glance down at her from where Olivier’s sitting, and where she is standing behind her chair. “I don’t know what you mean, Sir.”

“Are you and Mustang friends?”

Riza pauses, weighing her options of what to say to give Olivier the right answer. “We are on friendly terms, yes.”

“I have an idea for you.”

After finding out that she already knew Roy, Olivier deems Riza to be her liaison of sorts in the East. She figured that it would be better for relations between the North and East if the high-ranking soldiers got along, and while she doesn’t mind knocking the Colonel down a few pegs, Olivier can only handle him in small amounts. She is bestowing even more trust onto Riza, who now has the responsibility to correspond between the two of them and tell Olivier everything spoken about that is important to her. Besides, Olivier would rather focus her time in Briggs than with the spineless men in the East.

Riza begins to look forward to her trips to the East. She doesn’t go very often, but she goes for when they request someone come from the North (they’d given up coaxing Olivier to come down for anything except reports on Drachma after an attempted invasion) to attend any sort of meeting they required her to come to. It’s a nice reprieve from the wintry air and snowy mountains of the North, almost like a small vacation. Even if she isn’t there just to see Roy, he always finds a way to conveniently run into her at headquarters. 

“Does the General not like me anymore?” he asks, feigning disappointment. “I’m hurt.”

“She doesn’t really care if you’re hurt, so don’t worry too much about it,” Riza says, walking down the steps of Eastern Command at sundown, after a long day of meetings. He’s behind her and she decides to stop, turning and letting him catch up while tugging on his coat. She has her own on, with the small notepad she had written notes on in the meeting, knowing that she would remember what was said once she looked at her shorthand. “Where are you headed?”

“Out to dinner. I didn’t get to take my lunch break today, so I’m starving,” he answers, tucking his hands into his pants pockets and keeping up her pace. 

“Oh, poor thing,” she teases, and he rolls his eyes but grins along with her. 

“And what are your plans tonight?”

“Nothing special. I’m probably just going to order room service at the hotel.”

“How about you let me take you out for dinner?” he asks, giving her a broad and wide smile that she knows he uses to charm other girls, girls who have no idea that he’s not as charming as he lets on. “I know some good places here, that are inexpensive but good.”

“You’d take me somewhere cheap on a first date? How very unchivalrous.” Riza has her lips set in a flat line, but he can see the smirk that wants to uncurl on her lips. “I thought better of you, Colonel Mustang.”

“I didn’t think you’d want me to spend too much on you, Major Hawkeye,” he responds with the same air of sarcasm that she’s delivering to him. “Either way, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“And what’s that?”

“I’ve just recruited a State Alchemist into the military,” he starts, and her brows raise with surprise, no silly comeback in them, but instead she’s impressed. “I wanted to ask...if him and his brother ever end up in the North, will you make sure that they feel welcome there? I know General Armstrong won’t care much either way, and her two men are just as fierce as her, but I know you would make them feel not as scared as they would otherwise.”

“Why are you so worried about them feeling comfortable?” Riza asks, genuinely curious. “They’re adults, aren’t they?” Roy doesn’t respond for a moment, and even looks away like he can’t give her a straight answer. Riza’s brows furrow, and she watches him carefully. “What? You didn’t go and recruit a kid, did you?”

“As a matter of fact…”

Her eyes widen, and she stops walking, positively taken aback. “You didn’t. No, Colonel, even you aren’t that reckless.”

“He wanted to join --”

“How old is he?” 

“Twelve. But, Riza, they told me he was in his thirties.”

Riza lets out a huff of disbelief, absolutely shocked at what he’s just told her. “But you still recruited him?”

“It’s a long story. Just -- I’ll tell you all about it. If there wasn’t a serious reason, I wouldn’t have done it.” Roy is trying to cover his hide, and eventually Riza has to relax and come up with some way for him to tell her.

“Tell me about it over dinner,” she says, and for a moment Roy has to let it process. When Riza sees the smile start to grow on his face, she has to keep him from thinking it’s more than she’s implying. “It’s not a date. It’s just two colleagues going to talk business together.”

“Of course,” Roy nods, and she actually lets a small smile emerge because of the lopsided one he gives her in response to her stern orders. “Let me lead the way.”

*****

Riza meets the Elrics when Buccaneer comes to the fort with a small boy and suit of armor in tow. She’s standing with Olivier and Miles, watching over them as they introduce themselves to Olivier and fail at making a good first impression. Riza almost wants to call down to them to apologize, but she stays silent, knowing that it’s best if she lets Olivier handle them for now -- that is, until Ed yells up to her.

“Uh, ma’am? Are you Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye?”

Nearly everyone who is there turns to face her, and despite herself her eyes widen in shock ever so slightly, and after a second she composes herself. “Yes. How do you know me?”

“Colonel Mustang told us to ask for you. Although, it might not mean anything if you don’t trust other’s recommendations, too.”

Riza wants to smile down at him, at his earnest words, but she forces herself to stay serious. “He told me to be on the lookout for you if you ever appeared. I’ve heard a lot about you.” When Ed and Al get hopeful, she adds on, “Mainly that you two can be nuisances,” and they deflate immediately.

She finds them again later on that night, outside working with pickaxes to break down icicles. Al is having an easier go with it than Ed is, who is too short to even reach the icicle with his pickaxe. Riza’s faces soften, and she speaks up from behind to warn them of her presence. “Need a lift?”

Ed barely has time to turn before Riza wraps her strong arms around his torso to pick him up, lifting him to be able to reach the icicles. Al watches and next to her, she hears a “Wow!” as Ed knocks down a piece of ice. “Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye, how can you pick him up so easily?”

“Out here in Briggs, you’re trained to pick up things heavier than yourself, like cannons or bears,” she answers, looking over at Al as she steps to the side so Ed can work on the next icicle. “Luckily, Ed is probably half my size, so he feels light as a feather.” At this, Ed yells out a “Hey!”, and she laughs lightly to herself as she puts him back down on the ground while he gripes about not being short. 

“Did the Colonel tell you we were coming?” Ed asks, after gathering himself on the ground. 

“Nope. It’s a surprise to me.” Riza crosses her arms, and gives them both a kind smile. “He did ask me before, however, to be nice to you two.”

“After how the General treated us, I doubt anyone can be friendly here,” Ed grumbles.

“We’re a lot like you, Edward. We have to keep our guards up at all times,” Riza says, and she isn’t mocking him, but she’s coming from a maternal point of view. “The General takes everyone at face value, because she can’t be risky enough to trust someone based on what someone else thinks of them. She has to make her own judgment. She did it with me, and she’ll do it to you.”

“She was that harsh with you?” Al asks, and Riza nods.

“Even if my situation was different, she still had to make her own decision about how she felt about me. You have to earn respect here. So try to be respectful,” she says, and points the statement at Ed, who actually looks surprised but still nods. 

“You know, we’ve heard so much about you, but you’re so...nice,” Al says, and even if he’s in a suit of armor, Riza finds him charming in a boyish kind of way. “We’re definitely thankful for you, Hawkeye.”  
“I figured you needed someone on your side here from the beginning. You are both just kids, after all, even though you’ve had to grow up before you should have.”

“Yeah, well,” Ed starts, rubbing the back of his head, “You get used to it.”

“I know. I had to deal with the same thing,” she says, and before they can ask what she means, she changes the subject. “Anyways, the General may not take the word of others, but I can. The Colonel is a trustworthy man.”

“I can understand Al, but I don’t know why he put in a good word for me. He can’t stand me, and the feeling’s mutual,” Ed says, and Riza actually laughs, a warm and clear sound. 

“Maybe you and the General will get along, then.”

*****

Riza decides to go to Central on her own just before Olivier is summoned there herself, after the Elrics came to the fort and revealed the transmutation circle made by these Homunculi. She talks to Olivier about it beforehand, making sure has her blessing.

“You have the entire force of Briggs, but Falman has told me that Mustang has some kind of plan up his sleeve. He only has a haphazardly arranged group of soldiers willing to help orchestrate a coup, and can use all the help he can get.”

Olivier doesn’t answer at first, clearly thinking it over. “He could stand to have some help from the Hawk’s Eye.” She nods in agreement, clearly done thinking it over. “If he asks, tell him it’s not because I’m feeling friendly. If his plan doesn’t work, then this country could be taken down with him.”

This was how Riza ends up at his office door shortly after the work day, and knocks lightly. After hearing him tell her to come in, she enters, finding him staring out the window, deep in thought. She salutes him. “With the situation you’re in, you probably shouldn’t keep your back to the door, sir.”

Roy turns, and he has surprise written on his face when he sees her standing in front of him. “Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye. What brings you here?”

“The Elrics came to Briggs. They told us everything they knew. I decided you needed me more than the Briggs men do, because you don’t have an entire army backing you up.” She pauses, trying not to be too bold or brag too much. “I figured you could use my help.”

Roy considers her suggestion for a moment, and eventually gives her an easy smile. “It would help to have a sniper on our side.”

Riza had been trained to be able to fight bears, survive cold and seemingly unending winters, but the Promised Day was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She had known it would be tough, but she hadn’t expected everything they fought to be impervious to bullets, leaving her basically defenseless outside of her fighting skills. During the day, she had forgotten the sheer power of flame alchemy, and alchemy in general, and had to keep herself from staring so she wouldn’t get left behind during the coup. 

She had to help talk Roy down from going completely off the deep end while fighting Envy, not being kind with him at all, and even had her throat slit, used as a bargaining piece to get Roy to commit human transmutation, because they knew there was more than just an acquaintanceship between them; and when he wouldn’t, even after she was saved by a small Xingese girl, they forced him to do it.

Riza had thought he was completely done for until she hears the ground quaking and a couple of people on a stone hand, one of them an unfamiliar woman but the other is Roy, who she had thought had disappeared after being pinned down by the Fuhrer moments before. She rushes to help him off the hand, and realizes that he stumbles because his eyes are closed -- it doesn’t take her long to realize he’s been blinded. “Sir, you need to stay back. You’re in no condition to fight --”

“I have to. They need me to.”

“You’re blind!”

“And you’re not,” he says, and finally opens his eyes, now grey and nearly empty. Riza understands, and she nods -- even if he can’t see it, she knows he can sense it. “Your idea to help us was a good one after all.”

Riza helps guide his flames when they make it to the surface, and while she’s been trained to push through any kind of hardship, especially to say no to death, but after the Father is killed and the Elrics get their bodies back, it’s all she can do to not faint from her blood loss. She knows Roy couldn’t catch her if she fell, and there’s no one very close, so she has to wait until they get to an ambulance to relax and close her eyes, shrugging off her bloodied jacket and remind herself that she’s still alive.

All the Briggs soldiers who are there visit her in her private hospital room, before they leave to go back North. She isn’t able to leave right away, so per the doctor’s orders, she stays in Central until she heals. She tells them what happened to her neck, and they all listen to her story with a sort of awe. Vato Falman is the one who tells her, with a heavy heart, that Buccaneer was killed in action. Riza closes her eyes, bowing her head slightly with respect, but Riza has to ask -- “How did he die?”

“Honorably,” Falman answers, and he seems sincere. “He wouldn’t have let himself die just any old death.”

“That’s the Briggs Way,” Riza finishes for him. “You either die honorably or defy death.”

“That it is,” Falman agrees, and after a short conversation he leaves her to let her rest. Riza is left deep in thought -- now, more than ever, Briggs would need her, and she won’t admit it outright, but Olivier will need her, too.

She leaves earlier than she should. She can’t stand being stuck in a hospital while the men up North have already gone back to work. She drops by both Roy and Al’s rooms, wishing them well before leaving (it was still jarring to see Al as a young man, and to look at Roy and see grey eyes, even if they would be healed), going back to the atmosphere she was comfortable with, feeling satisfied knowing that she helped save the country she always strove to protect when it mattered the most.

Riza stays for a while in Briggs afterwards, but she sees her time at Briggs come to an end when the new Fuhrer, Grumman, requests that she work under him as his personal bodyguard. In fact, he comes to Briggs himself to talk it over with Olivier, and to meet Riza. 

She realizes why he asks her to be his bodyguard when he asks who her father is. “Berthold, wasn’t it?”

“How do you know him?”

“My daughter was married to him. Victoria Grumman.”

Riza’s eyes widen, positively shocked. She hadn’t remembered her mother’s maiden name, but she remembered her first name. She remembers hearing her and her father argue about Riza’s grandfather, with Berthold not wanting anything to do with the man. Riza gives Grumman a closer look, and if she looks deep enough she can see the barest trace of a resemblance to her mother, but she always assumed her mother looked like her own. “How should I believe you?”

“She sent me just one letter about her daughter, who she named Riza, and who she wished could meet me. I didn’t think telling you at a training exercise would be appropriate, and neither was telling Mustang, who I knew knew you, but after the Promised Day I’ve realized that you should be my personal bodyguard. I feel I can trust you to watch my back.”

Riza asks him to let her think it over. She can’t sleep that night. Leaving Briggs would be bittersweet -- it was where she made her career, where she grew close to so many other brave souls like herself, where she grew as a person and soldier. She felt at home here, but something was telling her that she can’t possibly turn down a job offer from the Fuhrer himself.

It’s Olivier who helps her make her decision. She walks with her to the meeting room where Grumman was waiting, and on the way, says, “You have done more than enough here. It will be a shame to lose you here, but your expertise is needed elsewhere. Don’t let any of us hold you back.”

That is enough for Riza to know what she needs to do.

She leaves the next day with Grumman, and while she expected to leave without much fanfare, it seems most of the Briggs crew, if not all of them, stopped what they were doing to watch her leave. Olivier and Miles stand above all of them, their faces still stone cold and their posture statuesque, but Riza knows it’s as bittersweet for them as it is for her. There are too many memories here, too many good people that she’s leaving behind. 

But, as she waves goodbye to them all, they all salute her, and when she slips into the car she has to cover her mouth to stop from crying before Grumman comes in after her. She may be leaving for Central, but Riza was still a Briggs soldier. 

Riza was starting a new part of her life, but she would still be the Sentinel of Briggs through and through.


End file.
